[22 June 2010] BRUSSELS – On 21 and 22 June 2010, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, convened an international seminar aiming to take stock of the potential of agroecological approaches (agroforestry, mixed crop-livestock, biological pest control, intercropping, etc.) to meet global food security and save climate in 2050.
Agroecological approaches, characterized by low external input use and the protection of water and land, still suffer a lack of support from policy makers. To date, most efforts are still directed towards "Green Revolution” schemes: improved seeds, chemical fertilizers and use of machinery. Yet, it is now largely proven that agroecology has a significant impact on increasing production and improving farmers' income.
In a context of climate, food & energy crisis, the Special Rapporteur has decided to bring together scientists, national and international policymakers, and representatives of farmers organizations in order to demonstrate the importance of ecological farming techniques and to identify public policies that could scale up these sustainable and promising approaches. Following this meeting, Olivier De Schutter announced that he would issue recommendations in the Fall, e.g. during the 36th session of the Committee on World Food Security.
| ReadPDF | Press release “Agroecology outperforms large-scale industrial farming for global food security”, 22 June 2010. |